Hussain defense team to get access to crash limo

Lawyers for limo operator have yet to view critical parts of Excursion

Lori Van Buren/Albany Times UnionNauman Hussain, the operator of Prestige Limousine, center, is surrounded by body guards as he leaves his arraignment at Schoharie County Court on Wednesday, April 10, 2019 in Schoharie, N.Y. Hussain had to post $450,000 bond and must wear a GPS. (Lori Van Buren/Times Union)

Lori Van Buren/Albany Times UnionAttorney Lee Kindlon talks to the press about his client Nauman Hussain, the operator of Prestige Limousine, after Hussain's arraignment at Schoharie County Court on Wednesday, April 10, 2019 in Schoharie, N.Y. (Lori Van Buren/Times Union)

Larry Rullison / Times UnionNauman Hussain, left, arrives in Schoharie County Court with his brother on Wednesday, April 10, 2019, to be arraigned on 20 counts of criminally negligent homicide and 20 counts of second-degree manslaughter. Hussain is the operator of the limousine company involved in the Schoharie crash that killed 20. (Larry Rullison / Times Union)

Lori Van Buren/Albany Times UnionNauman Hussain, the operator of Prestige Limousine, center, is surrounded by body guards as he leaves his arraignment at Schoharie County Court and gets into an SUV on Wednesday, April 10, 2019 in Schoharie, N.Y. Hussain had to post $450,000 bond and must wear a GPS. (Lori Van Buren/Times Union)

Lori Van Buren/Albany Times UnionNauman Hussain, the operator of Prestige Limousine, third from right, is surrounded by body guards as he leaves his arraignment at Schoharie County Court on Wednesday, April 10, 2019 in Schoharie, N.Y. Hussain had to post $450,000 bond and must wear a GPS. (Lori Van Buren/Times Union)

SCHOHARIE — The defense team for Nauman Hussain, the Gansevoort limousine operator charged in last fall's deadly crash in Schoharie, will finally get its hands on the stretch 2001 Ford Excursion involved in the disaster.

The defense is expected to begin its inspection of the vehicle and its equipment such as the transmission and braking system on Thursday.

The amount of time it has taken the defense to get access to the vehicle prompted Hussain's Albany attorney, Lee Kindlon, to file a request for a 60-day delay in the deadline for pre-trial motions.

That could likely push back the start of Hussain's trial, currently scheduled to begin Sept. 9, to later in the year.

Hussain, 29, was arraigned on April 10 on 20 counts of second-degree manslaughter and 20 counts of criminally negligent homicide related to the Oct. 6 crash. Twenty people died, making it one of the worst highway crashes in the United States in recent memory.

A group of 17 friends and family, many from the Amsterdam area, had booked a limo that morning though Hussain's company for a birthday party in Cooperstown.

The 34-foot limo came down a long hill on Route 30 just outside the village of Schoharie, blew through a stop sign at the intersection with Route 30A, crossed the highway at high speed, and hit an SUV in the parking lot of the Apple Barrel Country Store, killing two bystanders. It then slammed into the side of a ditch, killing all 18 people inside the limo.

Although the Excursion and the limo company are owned by Nauman Hussain's father, Shahed Hussain, State Police immediately focused on the son, who had been operating the company while his father has been away in Pakistan seeking medical care following open-heart surgery.

Prosecutors have claimed that Hussain knew the Excursion, which had been cited for safety violations in the months leading up to the accident, was unsafe to drive and that the driver, Scott Lisinicchia, did not have the proper license to chauffeur passengers.

Kindlon has foreshadowed some of the defense theories that he plans to present at trial, including the fact that a large amount of THC — the intoxicating ingredient in marijuana — was found in Lisinicchia's body at the time of the crash. The driver was also taking anti-seizure medicine.

Schoharie County District Attorney Susan Mallery has indicated prosecutors have "some medical records and pharmacy records" on Lisinicchia that could be favorable to the defense.

Kindlon noted in court papers that the intersection of Routes 30 and 30A is notorious for accidents, and Hussain was not aware that Lisinicchia was taking that route from Amsterdam to Cooperstown.

A parallel investigation into the crash by the National Transportation Safety Board is also underway, although under an agreement with Mallery, the NTSB will not get access to the Excursion and its internal parts until after the defense team is finished examining it with its own experts.

The NTSB is trying to determine why the limousine crashed and whether flaws should prompt changes in the industry.

In order to get access to the limo, the NTSB agreed to hold off on its examination until Hussain's experts have their chance to scrutinize it.

State Police's hired expert, Brian Chase of New Hampshire, got immediate access to the limo and did a "vehicle autopsy" on Oct. 14 and Oct. 15.

NTSB spokesman Eric Weiss did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday, but last week he said that the NTSB was still in the "fact-gathering" phase.

Larry Rulison has been a reporter for the Albany Times Union since 2005.

His decades-long career in journalism began in 1994 when he was hired as the editor for a small-town upstate New York weekly known as the Canastota Bee-Journal. He later worked at the Fayetteville Eagle Bulletin, the Baldwinsville Messenger and the Adirondack Daily Enterprise in Saranac Lake. He has covered business since 1998, working for Mutual Fund Market News in Boston and later the Baltimore Business Journal and Philadelphia Business Journal.

Larry's reporting for the Times Union has won several awards for business and investigative journalism from the New York State Associated Press Association and the New York News Publishers Association.